ADHD and Cycling

Riding Is My Ritalin

Adam Leibovitz is conducting a groundbreaking experiment that could transform the way doctors treat ADHD: He's pedaling his bicycle.

bruce barcott

His parents worried that he wouldn't keep up. "As he grew older, every year he'd be expected to concentrate a little harder and sit a little longer in his seat," his mother says. "When it came time to do his homework, he'd be rolling around under the table or running into the next room. He'd shout out the answers to us. He always knew the answers. He just couldn't sit still to write them down." When Adam turned 10, his parents decided to try the medication. On Adam's first day on Ritalin, he came home from school and declared it a success. "I felt clearer," he told his parents. "I could sit in class and pay attention." The drug wasn't perfect, though. It was tough to get the dosage right. Sometimes it kept him up at night. Sometimes it made him lose weight, which was worrisome for a skinny kid like Adam. His doctor prescribed Ritalin, then Adderall (a different mixture of amphetamine salts), then some others, then back to Ritalin. "There's a little parental guilt involved in giving your child a Schedule II stimulant," says Jeff Leibovitz. "But the bottom line was: Does the medicine work or not?"

Around the same time, Adam began going on bike rides with his father. Jeff is a Category 2 masters racer. He'd attach a trailer cycle to his bike and tempt Adam to come along on Saturday-morning training rides. "I'd lure him with the promise of fresh doughnuts," Leibovitz remembers. The boy took to riding quickly, almost preternaturally.

There was no way Jeff Leibovitz could have known it then, but that simple weekend ritual would eventually change the boy's life.